Ellen Nibali

Ellen Cook Nibali grew up in Fairland, MD, a semi-rural setting between Washington,D.C. and Baltimore, where she learned to love stories and the natural world. She wrote feature stories for the "Baltimore Sun" and community histories, winning an award, but when her research revealed the incredible lives of the real St. Nicholas and, later, St. Patrick, she had to put them into children's books that captured for kids the energy and surprises of these two inspiring men. She hopes more of America's holiday heros will follow "The Secret of St. Nicholas" and "The Puzzles of St. Patrick: from Slave to Saint." Currently she's a horticulture consultant with UMD Extension's Home and Garden Information Center and writes a garden column for "The Baltimore Sun", so she's happy to be writing and educating about gardening and the environment. More children's stories and novels are in the works between family, travel and gardening.